The acute effect of pleasurable music on craving for alcohol: A pilot crossover study

Chronic administration of drugs of abuse leads to a dopamine deficient state in the mesolimbic system, causing dysphoria in abstinence and contributing to craving and return to use. Recent functional imaging studies have shown that listening to personally pleasing music activates the mesolimbic reward system in a fashion similar to drugs of abuse. It has been proposed that such activation could ameliorate the dysphoria and craving of the hypodopaminergic state. The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of listening to personally pleasing or moving music on reducing craving in abstinent alcoholics using a single-blind, within-subject randomized block design, with three randomly determined presentations of each condition. Twelve participants with Alcohol Use Disorder on a residential substance rehabilitation unit reported their level of craving with a Visual Analog Scale before and after listening to either the participant-selected song or white noise. Using a mixed model to analyze the crossover design, the music intervention was found to have a statistically significant advantage in craving reduction compared to the noise control. Our results indicate that personally pleasing music might have a role in augmenting substance use disorder treatment via craving reduction. Further study is warranted to elucidate factors which predict the most robust response from this intervention.